Best do-it-all hunting caliber
- Thread starter RYoung
- Start date
I have had both, a couple of 7X61 Schultz and Larsen and several 308 Norma in different makes over the past fifty years.
Always reformed 7mm Rem Mag brass to 7X61. Found reformed Winchester SuperX brass to have slightly less than two grains case capacity of full length resized 7X61 Super factory brass that I found at the range.
Duck soup simple to reform 338 Win to crush fit in 308 Norma rifles. They were always a bit short in the neck, but lasted forever with case neck/shoulder area being annealed every five firings or so.
Ted
Yes, and groundhogs to grizzlies up here. There is probably no better way to find a grizzly bear than going sheep hunting. I have a friend who has taken three with his 270, and his wife, IIRC, one.
Practice, practice, practice, no matter what caliber rifle you use, and only using the bench to sight it in. The rest needs to be from field positions; prone, sitting, kneeling (which is the least stable), and offhand using makeshift rests such as tree branches, rock outcrops, etc.
Then practice some more, and do it with the same full-power loads you will be hunting with.
Ted
- Location
- Western Manitoba
All the above would presume an appropriate bullet is used - it is the bullet that kills, not the head stamp on the cartridge, scroll markings on the rifle, or the brand of the scope. If you think 30-06 is useful, for example - is very different results to expect with a round loaded with 110 grain Speer Varmint, versus 200 grain Nosler Partition - they are different, for different purposes - is not "one" that is "best" for all circumstances - although 165 grain or 180 grain Partition are likely getting close ...
mudgunner49
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Too true...
I'm no expert, but I've been a game ranger in South Africa. The general consensus there seems to be that .375 is a good do it all, but that's because they are taking lions, hippo, elephants and buffalo into account, though I'd prefer a .458 if an elephant was about to take me out. I really enjoyed a 30-06 and used to do a lot of ration shooting and some culling with it. One of my colleagues did all of his problem animal control with a 30-06, but he said it was all about shot placement. I am planning to get a 30-06 as soon as I can find a good deal, but I don't want a synthetic stock. I like a nice old wooden stock.
What are you on about?
Lot of good advice and insights in this thread. I can remember being in the same position a number of years ago when I got back into hunting and almost drove myself crazy ... as well as the people at my local gun store trying to decide which caliber is best LOL. Over the years I have purchased and sold a wide variety of rifles in almost every caliber up to 375. Regarding recoil I found that the same caliber in different rifles felt very different because of rifle fit and weight. If you want to become proficient and not develop a flinch then start with smaller caliber and a heavier rifle. Today my favourite caliber is 6.5x55 and 375 H&H. I find my 375 has a more pleasant recoil then my 300 Winmag. When hunting moose I still prefer my 3006 over my 300 Winmag because I have not spent as much time practicing with it out in the field so I dont have the same level of confidence. I think my best investment was attending some hunter shooting courses at Milcun with instructors Keith Cunningham and Linda Miller, where they put us through a number of hunting type shooting situations and most importantly taught me a lot about wind reading. I also joined some precision shooting groups which helped me gain confidence and learn some technical skills for longer range shooting. One thing that took me time and money to learn was the scope powers that were useful in eastern Canada vs Western Canada. In much of Eastern Canada you have a lot of thick forest so shooting distance is often much shorter than in western Canada. I purchased some wonderful scopes with great writeups but they were overpowered for most of the areas I hunt. That leads me to the next point which is once you find a rifle that fits you or have one modified for your body frame, the next thing is to spend a lot of time learning how to use your scope reticle under various conditions. I suspect that for most of us it takes a lot longer then we think to become proficient when we have a new rifle, caliber, scope combination. This is just my experience. Now I have a Blaser R93 Pro with various caliber barrels because the stock fits me like a glove and when I change calibers - 223, 243, 6.5x55, 3006, 300 WinMag, or 375 H&H the fit/cheek weld remains the same. My safari Ching sling was one of the best things I ever bought for creating a stable platform to shoot when I didnt have a good spot to rest my rifle. I try to use it when practicing my shooting skills and when practicing technique I tend to use my smaller calibers. During the winter months I have found my Air Arms TX200 22 cal air rifle is great for indoor practice and yes it also works well for pest control. For birds I still love my SBE II 12 gauge, and also have a scoped rifled barrel for it and have taken quite a few white tailed deer with it at up to 230 yards with no problem.
welcome and very good choice for the 30-06 in wood stock. i do liked the 460 wea mag lh i had for back up when we were getting close of elephants or buffaloes even if ours were not even the cape version ... only western or even the dwarf forest.
While I still hold, that for me, the 6.5 x 55 is my ideal sporter, I have read some articles and watched some videos advocating for the 9.3 x 62. There is lots of supporting info that it works well, without being destructive on small and large deer species and boar, but massive enough to give great penetration on dangerous game. As far a classic sporters go, there are lots of used '98 Mausers from Sweden available here in Canada. I got a real beauty from Intersurplus about 6 weeks ago and all that it needed was a good cleaning. A number of other dealers have these rifles available, and there are lots of them in 30-06, 8 x 57, 9.3 x 57 as well.
A few draw-backs:
Ammo is expensive and ranges from about $50-120 per box of 20 (with the current prices of reloading components, if you can find them, about $4/shell).
Recoil is substantial (light easy to handle rifle but after two rounds, I went home and ordered a recoil pad LOL.)
Not legal for hunting in my zone.
I would not hesitate to use this rifle for bear on up, but it is no ground-hog plinker.
9.3 x 62 beside a 6.5 x 55:
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My 6.5 x 55 Zastava and my 9.3 HVA 98 Mauser with some details of the Mauser:
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Video did not work here, see next post.
